The big news buzzing around at the moment is the proposed arrival of the eighth generation of consoles. The Wii-U is on its way and the news of a successor to the Xbox 360 has recently surfaced. However it’s not all good news as Sony recently recorded an End-of-Financial-Year loss for the first time since entering the gaming race.
But I'm not interested in the next generation. It may happen but it's not like I'm ever going to notice. I mean what's the point? I have plenty of games that have yet to played - many of which accumulated through looking at the previous generations of gaming - so if something needs to grab my attention it would need to be something special.
I would certainly get the new Xbox if they have reverse-compatibility and retain the stuff I obtained for my XBLA account but that isn’t the type of thing that gaming manufacturers like to hear: For anyone who is playing old stuff is one who isn’t playing the new stuff – and why would you buy a console that can do so much to use the stuff you’ve already got? Granted the backwards-compatibility may have been a factor that made the PS2 a major seller but now, in this late hour, there seems to be a logic in Sony refusing backwards compatibility in the PS3. It may not be a very good logic from the standpoint of the consumer but it’s still a logic nonetheless.
Funny thing with console generations is that I usually arrive at them at the tail end of their run. In 2006 I finally got out and purchased a gaming console to call my own: The PS2. Of course the 360 had just arrived but I got a lot of use out of my PS2. But it was only matter of time before my attention was drawn to the current generation. And out of this generation, it was the Wii that got my attention first – but only for that wonderful thing called the Virtual Console. And that was back in 2009. So what persuaded me to get a 360? Seeing Mass Effect 2 being played out at a friend’s place – and I did get a 360 back in late 2010.
All of which came very late in the respective console’s life – but it should be noted that I got more games for the Virtual Console than I have for the Wii and 360. However, again, this is not the type of thing game manufacturers would want to hear.
But really where can we go from here? There isn’t much further we can go: I’ve seen gaming discussions that suggest the same: There isn’t really anywhere further we can go, motion control isn’t really that good an idea, and the days of console gaming look to be numbered. Indeed, there is a sense that PC gaming may destroy the competition through the virtue of being able to easily upgrade with the progression of time. Thus, having a system all set up and without any room for expansion now looks kind of quaint.
But then again what would I know?
I’m just a guy with a huge list of games left unfinished.
Suppose it depends on what games you want to play most games like mass effect are produced on PC , Xbox and PS3 , but some games do not transverse the whole console arena one reason I invested in a ps3 I may invest in one of the new wii systems if it offers new games or game play experience I am still reading up on it.
ReplyDeletePlus I am still deciding on it due to space issues as my new partner has two young children who love to get into everything much as I love the little mites I don't think my poor consoles could work with food and drink shoved in their dvd game ports and the controls might not fair to well either. One reason all of them will be kept in the main room if I move in with him.
At Avcon they had a retro alley I will admit going in there and seeing and fiddling with the older consoles and games brought back some good memory's for me I still think foundly of the old consoles.